The pervasiveness of read receipts are a minor symptom of a systemic problem that consumers and regulators are only beginning to understand. Read Receipts Tracking - A Minor Symptom of a Systemic Problem We set out to build the best mail app possible that’s free for consumers to use, and does not subject you to invasive tracking and targeting.” From day one almost four years ago, unlike other email app developers, our team at Edison Mail offered consumers the built-in ability to block read receipts. Our CEO at Edison, Mikael Berner, believes this is an important protection for consumers, now more than ever, saying, “Read receipts are just another way that companies claiming to protect consumer privacy end up targeting people in a very personal way. Since its debut in 2016, our Edison Mail app has offered consumers built-in protection against this nature of targeting via our email app’s ability to automatically block read receipts from being sent back to anyone attempting to track you via their message. Unfortunately, many email services and apps are making automated read receipts a standard feature for consumers to access and track the activity of the recipients they send email messages - even though functionality does already exist to request read and/or delivery receipts for all messages that you send, with a mail recipient’s permission. You may have heard about them in the news this week. The spies in your email we are referring to are called Read Receipts (read more general information about them at the end of this post). ![]() Simply by opening that message with its silent spy embedded, the email sender can now also start targeting you through advertising via Facebook, Search, and other web properties. You also do not realize that if you used your mobile app to access the message (as 70% of us that use our mobile email app do) you are now also in danger of getting a call directly from the very same mail sender. ![]() Unbeknownst to you, the email sender has been waiting for you to open their message, and is now collecting the time of your email reading habits, making note that you expressed interest in their subject matter, and even the device you use at that time of day. Little do you know, most of those marketing messages in your inbox have a silent spy embedded in them to monitor you.Īs soon you open one of those emails (even to delete it), you have unknowingly triggered a cascade of events that will result in additional future emails from that sender to boomerang back into your mailbox. You start skimming subject lines and begin deleting an array of messages that you can tell at a glance are marketing and sales pitches from senders you don’t know, feeling a jolt of accomplishment as you do. ![]() It’s Monday morning and, as usual, you open your email to catch up and clear out your mailbox to get the ball rolling on your week. Hidden read receipts are secretly in many of the emails you receive every day, and automatically alert the email sender when you opened it, the device used to open it, and can now begin to target you for ads.Įdison Mail has been automatically blocking these read receipts since 2016, ensuring that your inbox stays private.ĭownload Edison Mail on iOS and on Android.
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